Senate Prospects For Class Action Bill Still Murky

Howard Erichson was quoted in Bloomberg about the recent class action overhaul bill.

Speaking at another event the same day, Professor Howard Erichson said there is a “deep skepticism of class actions” underlying the bill. Erichson specializes on ethics of complex litigation at Fordam University School of Law in New York.

He acknowledged that class-action practice is flawed, but said the bill “takes a sledgehammer to problems that require chiseling.”

“I would vote no if I were a senator,” he said. “The bill makes no attempt to preserve what’s useful about class actions.”

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But defense attorney Andrew Grossman responded, “When you talk to people in the trenches, you recognize a lot of pathologies in the system and broken incentives.”

“The bill is a pretty sensible way to change those incentives,” Grossman, partner at Baker & Hostetler LLP in Washington, said.

“There are areas in the bill for compromise at the margins, but there are also lots of good provisions,” he said.

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Erichson and Grossman spoke March 31 at a Federalist Society teleforum.

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Founded in 1841, Fordham is the Jesuit University of New York, offering exceptional education distinguished by the Jesuit tradition to more than 15,100 students in its four undergraduate colleges and its six graduate and professional schools.